British Shipbuilders Totally Explained

Everything about British Shipbuilders totally explained

British Shipbuilders Corporation was a public corporation that owned and managed the UK shipbuilding industry from 1977 and through the 1980s.
The corporation was founded as a result of the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act 1977 which nationalised all major British shipbuilding companies. The same act nationalised the three large British aviation companies and grouped them in an analogous corporation, British Aerospace. The company secretary of British Shipbuilders was one F. Noah. Harland & Wolff, the only shipbuilder based in Northern Ireland was a special political case and remained out of the control of the British Shipbuilders management, despite being in State ownership. British Shipbuilders was privatised in 1983 under the terms of the British Shipbuilders Act 1983. The various divisions that had survived under nationalised ownership were divested throughout the 1980s as the company wound up operations.
The British Shipbuilders Corporation continues to exist in statute in order to be accountable for any liabilities incurred during its operational history.

Assets subsumed by British Shipbuilders

Ailsa Shipbuilding Company, Troon (acquired in 1978, merged with Ferguson Shipbuilders to form Ferguson-Ailsa in 1981, assets transferred to Scott Lithgow)
Austin & Pickersgill, Sunderland
John Brown & Company, Clydebank
Cammell Laird and Company, Birkenhead
William Doxford and Sons, Pallion
Ferguson Shipbuilders, Port Glasgow (merged with Ailsa in 1981 to form Ferguson-Ailsa)
Falmouth Docks Company, Falmouth
Govan Shipbuilders, Govan
R & H Green & Silley Weir and London Graving Dock Company, London (as River Thames Ship Repairers, later renamed Blackwall Engineering)
Hall Russell & Company, Aberdeen
Harland and Wolff, Belfast (nationalised but outwith the management of British Shipbuilders)
Hawthorn Leslie and Company, Hebburn
Northwestern Ship Repairers and Shipbuilding Limited (NSL), Merseyside
John Readhead and Sons, South Shields
Scott Lithgow, Greenock
Robb Caledon Shipbuilders, Leith and Dundee
Smiths Dock Company, Middlesbrough
Swan Hunter Shipbuilders Limited, Wallsend (later renamed Swan Hunter)
Vickers Limited Shipbuilding Group, Barrow in Furness (later renamed Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Limited - VSEL)
Vosper Thornycroft, Woolston and Portsmouth
Wallsend Slipway and Engineering Company, Wallsend
Yarrow Shipbuilders (YSL), Scotstoun

Denationalisation

Cammell Laird - 1986 - as a subsidiary of VSEL, finished shipbuilding 1993, now part of NSL

Ferguson Ailsa - 1986 - split and sold, Ailsa to Perth Corporation as Ailsa Perth Shipbuilders and Ferguson to Appledore Shipbuilders as Appledore Ferguson

Govan Shipbuilders - 1988 - sold to Kværner as Kværner (Govan), to GEC-Marconi 1999 as part of Marconi Marine then to BAE Systems as part of BAE Systems Marine, now BAE Systems Naval Ships

Scott Lithgow - 1981 - individual operating companies dissolved, sold to Trafalgar House in 1984, closed 2003

Swan Hunter - ? - to receivership 1994, bought by Jaap Kroese

YSL - 1985 - sold to GEC-Marconi as Marconi Marine (YSL) then to BAE Systems as part of BAE Systems Marine, now BAE Systems Naval Ships

Vosper Thornycroft - 1985 - management buyout, now known as VT Group

VSEL - 1986 - with Cammell Laird as a subsidiary. Acquired by GEC-Marconi in 1995 as part of Marconi Marine, then to BAE Systems as part of BAE Systems Marine, now BAE Systems Submarines

Harland and Wolff - 1989

The evolution of British Shipbuilders

Further Information

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